


Affirmation

by Fenix21



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage, One Shot, Schmoop, Teeny bit of angst, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 23:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3915289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fenix21/pseuds/Fenix21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam needs a little ceremony, but Dean made his choice a long time ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Affirmation

**Author's Note:**

> Can you tell I've been needing to feel the love lately?

'You know this doesn't solve a damn thing.'

'It's not supposed to _solve_ anything, Dean,' Sam said, reaching around his brother's shoulders to straighten his collar and smooth down the front of his shirt in the mirror. It was a solid sapphire blue button down instead of his usual plaid. It brought out the green in his eyes, nearly making them glow, and complimented the dusting of freckles across his nose and cheekbones.

'Thanks for at least not making me get into that damn pencil-neck suit,' Dean grumbled.

Sam smiled indulgently and turned Dean toward him, hands on his shoulders. 'That wouldn't be 'us' and this is nothing if not about us.' He ducked down a little, trying to snag Dean's skittish gaze. 'Nervous?'

Dean snorted. ''Course not. It's not like this even makes anything official, seeing as how it's _illegal_ in all fifty states and most countries.'

'Not about official,' Sam said evenly, still smiling and dusting off Dean's shoulders.

'You nervous?' Dean asked, voice suddenly soft, looking up at Sam from under his long lashes.

Sam stilled, met his brother's gaze, and then cupped his hands to either side of Dean's strong jaw. 'Not a whit.'

'Good. That's good,' Dean said, heaving a breath.

Sam held him for another second, thumbed his cheekbones slowly, brushing up over the smattering of grey at his temples that had shown up in the last few years, then he brought their foreheads together.

'I need this, Dean,' he whispered. 'I can't even say why. I just do.'

'I know. That's why I'm doin' it.'

Sam lifted away just a little, enough to look in Dean's eyes. 'But you really don't want to, do you?'

Dean shook his head, turning to put a kiss in Sam's palm, to ease the miserable look in his uncertain gaze.

'It's not that, Sammy. I just don't need to, 's all.'

Sam nodded, dropping his gaze and his hands. Dean caught at them and held them tight before Sam could get away.

'Sammy, you remember Michigan, and the Vargasett? You were like twelve, I think, maybe thirteen.'

'Yeah, I was in the hospital for a month afterward.' Sam frowned at the memory.

'Yeah,' Dean nodded, 'because you got between it and me when I lost my gun. Just charged it with nothin' but that iron blade Bobby'd given you for Christmas the last year, without a thought to what that thing could do to you.'

'It was going to kill you, Dean,' Sam whispered, remembering.

'I know. But the way you just went at it like nothin' in the world mattered except keeping it away from me, and then it took a swing at you, and you were lying there bleeding all over everything, and I-I snapped, Sammy. I just snapped.'

'Dean?'

Dean was trembling, gripping Sam's fingers so hard they were starting to tingle from the lack of blood flow.

'I hacked that monster to pieces, Sam. I didn't just kill it. I took it apart with my bare hands until there was nothin' left but a pile of bloody guts and broken bones, not even hardly enough to salt and burn.'

Sam shuddered. 'Jesus… You never said.'

Dean shook his head. 'No. Thought I'd just scare you. Scared Dad. Hell, scared _me_.'

'That's why Dad didn't take you out again for almost a year,' Sam said softly with sudden knowing.

'Yeah,' Dean said. 'But my point, Sam, is that no one ever before or after did what you did for me that night, and for it to be you, before you were even thinkin' about… Well, it hit me hard, and it stuck deep.'

'I remember you crying in the hospital room, by my bed,' Sam said quietly, squeezing Dean's hands. 'And you—you prayed.'

Dean lifted his gaze, a little surprised that Sam knew that. 'Yeah. Yeah, I did. It was one of the last times, but I did. I swore to whatever power was out there that if you lived, then from that day forward I was never going to let anything happen to you ever again. You were going to be mine to protect. Mine to take care of, and to love from that moment on, forever. No matter what.'

"It's been a hard bargain to keep over the years, and sometimes I failed pretty damn miserably.' Dean lifted a hand to cup Sam's cheek, looking earnestly into his damp, shining eyes. 'But you do you get it, don't you, Sammy?'

Sam nodded slowly. 'Ever since then?'

'Ever since then,' Dean said. 'Probably even before.'

'Jesus, Dean. Just—Jesus!' Sam grabbed Dean to him and held him tight, tucking his face down into the crook of his brother's neck, bringing his whole body in and making himself small so that he could feel Dean wrap himself all around him like he'd done when Sam was so, so much younger.

Dean let him cry for a few quiet minutes, sifting his fingers through his hair and keeping his lips pressed softly to the back of his head, then he gently pulled away, tipping Sam's face up.

'I didn't tell you to make you sad, Sam, or guilty, and I still want to do this with you. I really do. I just wanted you to know.'

Sam nodded, swiping at his eyes, still unable to speak.

There was a knock at the door and Garth poked his head in the room. 

'You guys ready?' he asked, then seeing Sam's tear streaked face and Dean's soft look of concern, he frowned. 'Nobody's gettin' cold feet, are they?'

'No, no, not at all,' Sam managed, finally drying his eyes.

'Good. Okay then, shall we get this show on the road?'

There was no fuss, no music, no pomp and circumstance of any kind. The boys both wore the same worn jeans they did every day with the addition of a decent shirt, buttoned and tucked in, but no ties. Cas stood at the foot of the front stairwell with Claire off his shoulder holding a small handful of wine colored velvet out in front of her. Charlie and Dora stood off to the side, Charlie with a small bouquet of wildflowers gathered hastily from beside the road out front and a huge watery grin that made Dean roll his eyes lovingly and Sam smile. Garth stood, already sniffling into his kerchief, at the door to the library behind them.

Dean and Sam made their way around the war room table, each to one side, and met on the other end in front of Cas who was looking sincere as ever, but just a little this side of smugly gratified as well. He said a few words, something vaguely traditional, and then motioned Claire forward to unwrap the pile of velvet and reveal two shining brushed platinum rings Sam had specially made and inscribed with some of the most powerful protective sigils he had in his lexicon.

They exchanged the rings, and Cas stepped back to let them share the vows they had written, but when Sam tried to speak he got all teary-eyed again and tongue-tied and couldn't get any words past the lump in his throat. Finally, he gave up, knocked their foreheads together and whispered hoarsely,

'I love you. I just…love you.'

Dean smiled and held his brother's face between his hands. 'Love you, too, kiddo. Love you, too.'

Cas waited a full minute for them to continue before Dean shot him a just-get-it-done look and Cas shrugged and said,

'Then I pronounce you 'married' in the eyes of the witnesses here assembled and the Heavens above. May the bond you share be blessed and everlasting.'

Dean raised a surprised and approving eyebrow as Cas' short and sweet speech, and his mouth hitched up in a half smile.

'You may now, uh, kiss the groom?' Cas said quietly.

Dean pulled Sam a little closer, touched their noses together. 'Thanks. Don't mind if I do.'

As Dean drew Sam down to press their lips together slow and warm and tender, Charlie whooped excitedly behind them and showered them with her bouquet of flowers.

Dean grinned, held Sam close, and whispered against his mouth, 'Feel better, now?'

Sam shook his head, smiling back. 'I think doing it made me realize what I knew all along.'

Dean raised an eyebrow.

'That I didn't actually need to.' He brushed their lips together. 'I'm yours, Dean. Always have been. Always will be. All of me, forever.'

Dean swallowed thickly, then, voice rough and graveled with a sudden surge of love that threatened to turn this whole damn thing into a major chick-flick moment, said,

'Damn straight, Sammy.' 

He kissed his brother long and deep until they were both nearly breathless and then whispered so that only Sam could hear, 'Same goes, little brother. Always and forever.'

 


End file.
